It comes in a ton of colors and even though my husband loathes it, I love it enough to make up for his disdain. (Sorry for the odd picture format, I couldn’t get it to crop evenly).

2.) This gorgeous slab I saw last week when doing some granite selection with a client.

Well, actually, it’s two slabs. See the reflection of the man for scale – they’re huge! I wish I remembered the name of the stone but all I can recall is the word “azure.”

3.) Easter Eggs/Family Crafts

We did some family egg dyeing last weekend, and I thought I was very clever when I taped off an egg and made an abstract landscape:

Then I walked around the table to check on my husband, and he TOTALLY showed me up with his PAINTING of our cat. Unbelievable. But he is talented! Do I even need to mention that instead of using a regular, pedestrian hard-boiled egg like my son and I did, he drilled a hole into his and literally blew out all of the insides?…of course I don’t.

Here are the finished eggs:

4.) Graphic patterns with bold colors.

This is a detail from a restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee called Milk and Honey (their website sports the same colors. Excellent gelato.) Right up my alley! This has been a long lasting combo, and I hope it sticks around.

5.) This video, which creatively applies the aesthetic of filmmaker Wes Anderson to the classic, Forest Gump.

Many of my friends and most of my neighbors are aware of the ever-present, pretty annoying, long-lasting construction project going on in my condo right now. To make a long story short, the building has some issues with waterproofing that are a result of not very detail oriented initial construction, and we’re in the midst of what we’re hoping is the final fix. Also, Pro-Tip: When installing window flashing, you want to position it so that it directs water outward, toward the facade, and not inward, toward YOUR HOUSE.

So now that we’ve covered that, let me explain…

About a month ago we were graced with this lovely tent.

Not only did it compromise the lovely light that we get through this hugely awesome window, but it upset my son because it exists in his “play station.” He came home from school and charged it like a linebacker. Not good. Though I can attest that it’s a pretty sturdy bubble.

After about a month, they realized the existing windows will no longer work, so the search is on for new, custom, apparently very hard to find windows. I am no stranger to custom items, long lead times, and construction hassle. But ugh. And it was getting cold in here. So in this windowless hole, they put up a temporary insulated wall, which will grace our condo with its presence until the new year, when the new windows are finally here. It’s heinous.

My first thought was: MY HOUSE IS GOING TO BE SO UGLY FOR THE HOLIDAYS. My second though a few seconds later was “Can I paint this?” So I asked a guy standing around and he said I could. Before he had time to go ask someone who could say “no” I painted it. With chalkboard paint. Bear with me here on this big black box…

I had about 1/3 of a quart left, and I used every single bit of it. The best thing about chalkboard paint is that one coat is enough, and if you do a spotty job, you’ll never know because the first time you use it you create an imperfect, cloudy/chalky finish.

I strung up some lights, and then my son went to town with the chalk. The first thing he did was get a chair, climb up on it, and draw a sun and clouds. “Because they’re up high.”

I’m really liking this “new” look. We’ll “Christmas-ize” it in a few weeks, and I think it will be a lot of fun. I might even miss it when it goes. Maybe. I might. We’ll see.I have to admit my craftsmanship is at 75%, but hey, it’s fun.

Just wanted to share this fun project, which turned a disaster into a fun, temporary installation!

I work with a lot of new homeowners who hire me to select paint colors and wall treatments. Usually, we are just switching up colors to suit the new owners’ tastes. Sometimes we’re trying to get rid of dated wallpaper, faux finishes, or wood paneling. And sometimes, if we are lucky, we uncover awesome surprises in the form of murals. One of those times was this morning at an early color consultation meeting.

Here are two murals that I can’t resist sharing. I’ll withhold telling you whether or not we covered them up…to each her own.

The first comes from a bedroom in a house that is, inexplicably, not near the White Flint metro station. If the scale is not clear, let me clarify: it was pretty large.10 points for a realistic ceiling depiction.

The second is a stunningly accurate depiction of the Beatles in their Yellow Submarine period. It is AMAZING.

The details!

I have to say that the people who commissioned these must have been fun loving and artistic people. They certainly make my job more interesting.

I’ve had a lot of questions about gallery walls lately: how to start them, what goes in (or is it on?) them, and are there any “rules” when creating them. Well, if you’ve worked with me or been in one of my classes before, you probably know my stance on “rules”: I don’t really do rules. Which isn’t to say everything goes – it doesn’t – but rather, I mean that there are so many conceivable ways to create a lovely gallery wall that I can’t even possible begin to list the process or tell you what elements you absolutely need. I can, however, give you a few suggestions and point out what makes a nice grouping. Below are some examples of great gallery walls, and some notes about how to emulate these looks. Enjoy!

Contrast is Key. I like the punch of a gallery wall that is white on black, or black on white, or white on white with bursts of color within the frames. Here are some examples of gallery walls that emphasize contrast effectively.

Variation AND Repetition Go Hand in Hand. Got an interesting gold frame to incorporate? Great! Include a few additional gold touches. Have a bunch of thin frames in a single color? Great! Add more thin frames in additional colors. Get it?

This one has both varying object sizes AND is small in scope. (via Pinterest, source unknown)

Start With Something Specific or Functional and Let it Grow. I often start gallery walls with a single piece of art or photography or utility that is important to the end-user. You don’t have to complete it in a day or even a week. Just hang that mirror or tv or piece of art (at eye level, preferably, as it’s the most important piece) and let other pieces spawn off of it.

Begin with a mirror and let the other elements fall where they may… (via The Fashion Medley)

…or begin with a television – BRILLIANT! I’ve used this a few times myself. (also via The Fashion Medley)

Oh, you’re wondering about spacing? Well, I do have a simple rule for that. If you use all the same frames, you can space them equally but the look will be less “Anthropologie” and more traditional . If you use different, differently sized frames, space them HOWEVER YOU WANT, whether it’s super organized or more crafty and uneven.

I’m doing that thing again. You know, that thing where I blog steadily for a week then don’t log in for two weeks. So let’s play catch up, which is where I fill you in on some recent happenings that I’ve completely neglected to blog about.

I hung a bunch of “tree ring paintings” in my living room. My husband is a bit perplexed by the asymmetrical arrangement, but I am loving it.

I recently checked in on a client and her sweet little boy’s room, and this is how the oddly-angled ceiling turned out. In my opinion, it’s PERFECT. The blue/gray is my go-to favorite, Benjamin Moore’s Mt. Rainier Gray, and the yellow is a secret and I’m not gonna tell you what it is.

I harvested almost all of my tomatoes from my cherry tomato plants, which is surprising, because they usually come later in the year. I’ve even cleared one and planted more herbs in its place. Those little snow pea-looking things are courtesy of my son’s preschool class: they planted them in stryo-foam cups last spring and since transplanting it, it’s grown tremendously.

We made pizza. A lot of pizza. My portion has hot peppers, cherry peppers, and red bell peppers. I like peppers. The boys have pepperoni and mushrooms and red peppers.

I re-discovered an old pocket-watch that belonged to one of my grandmothers. I found a chain for it that will work in the short-term, and put it to good use. (One thing I did not do is invest in better sunscreen, which by the looks of my rapidly expanding freckle-scape, I should….).

I started working with four new clients in the past three weeks for what I expect will be fairly small but really fun projects, wrapped up a course at the Corcoran College of Art + Design, signed on to teach a brand new course that I am VERY excited about, and am about to enjoy two full weeks with my son home for a “real” summer – with no where to be, and with only (if all goes as planned) minimal work to do. Hopefully, I can find some time to blog while August blows by. I’m looking forward to getting out of town for a bit, relaxing, and sitting back to ponder life and eat some snow cones like this guy:

I look forward to sharing LOTS of finished interiors picks in the fall, but am saving them up as I refine some projects and keep plugging away for now…

Today I took my interior design students from the Corcoran College of Art + Design to one of my new favorite places in D.C.: the formerly-decaying-now-under-renovation old Baptist church at 700 Delaware Avenue S.W. that has recently been painted by Atlanta-artist Hense Brewer. None of the 12 of them knew what was coming; all they had was an address. So they were all pretty surprised – pleasantly I think – to arrive and find this:

I was here about a month ago and didn’t see anything going on, but now it’s pretty clear they’re deep into renovating the interior. I spoke with the building’s owner, Steve Tanner, and some of his partners in this endeavor over at Art Whino, and the plans are for this to eventually become an event/gallery space.

We walked around the building a bit to see it from all the different angles.

There’s a lot to see.

They even let us inside, which was thrilling. It’s not as dark as it looks from the foreboding open door…

One of the first things we saw in the vast first floor space was this baptismal pool. We all thought it was going to be an altar as we approached…but it wasn’t. Very intense, a little freaky to see it in such a run down state, and ultimately really interesting. It really drove home the type of space this was intended to be, versus the new functions it will house. Steve tells me this building was officially decommissioned by the church a while back, which is when there is an official ceremony conducted that figuratively takes the soul of the building and makes way for the building to move on and serve another purpose.

But back to that baptismal pool, I suppose this is where the DJ booth is going to go… This is adaptive reuse in action. I think it’s fascinating.

The upstairs, which is quite different from the plain downstairs, is just as interesting as the exterior. Here’s a little peek.

The windows are particularly eye-catching, because many are stained glass AND have the exterior paint on them, so the colors they transmit and reflect are really powerful.

(The image immediately above is a panorama, so the wall is not actually curved.)

After the tour, we sat outside and did some sketching. A big component of this particular course is becoming more comfortable with sketching, and this was a great opportunity to sit before a fantastic, very out of the ordinary subject.

Next week we’ll work with this space in class a bit to brainstorm alternative possible uses for it as an exercise in space planning. This will be hypothetical of course, because it’s being developed right now as a cultural, social, and artistic hot spot for a dynamic neighborhood. That’s a function that’s hard to beat!

Additionally, if you’re interested in seeing this building house the G40 Art Summit later this year, or if you want read a bit more about the aspirations of those involved in this project, please visit this page to read up and help out!

One afternoon last week, instead of heading straight home like we usually do I took my son to one of my favorite spots in DC: the “watermelon house” in Shaw. He was AMAZED. I’ve been wanting to do a photo shoot here for a while, but life doesn’t always happen with a DSLR in-hand, so instead of doing it right we busted out the Instagram and did it sort-of-right. He had on a green shirt, which was just perfect. I love this photo so I thought I’d share.

He looks so sweet and contemplative, when in reality he was bribed to be still instead of repeatedly yelling “WATERMELON! Are you serious? Can I get a watermelon popsicle RIGHT NOW?” He was still sweet. Just not very contemplative.